Obama cuts funding for Plum Island replacement

President Barack Obama, in his federal spending plan unveiled Monday, recommended that no additional funding be allocated for construction of a new biosecurity lab in Kansas and said the Department of Homeland Security will reassess the project’s viability.

Congress only appropriated $50 million of the $150 million the Obama administration requested for the lab in the current budget year, which the White House said was insufficient to begin construction.

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“In light of this, the Administration will conduct a comprehensive assessment of the project in 2012, which will consider the cost, safety and any alternatives to the current plan that would reduce costs and ensure safety,” the budget document unveiled Monday states.

Obama is asking the Department of Homeland Security to reevaluate the project, while spending $10 million to increase the amount of research being done at Kansas State’s Biosecurity Research Institute.

The budget plan also calls for developing a public outreach program to notify surrounding residents and livestock producers about the additional research and safety measures in place to protect humans and animals.

But the proposal appears to be a major blow to Kansas, which saw the lab as the centerpiece of an emerging biosciences industry. State officials expected the new lab to have more than 300 jobs that would pay an average of more than $75,000 a year in salary and benefits.

The new lab, which officials hoped to have operating by 2018, would replace an aging facility on Plum Island, N.Y. But U.S. Rep. Timothy Bishop, a Democrat who represents the Plum Island site and Long Island, had asked the federal Office of Management and Budget not to recommend funding for NBAF.

Members of Kansas’ congressional delegation and Brownback have previously expressed confidence that the project will be fully funded, despite opposition from some concerned about the lab’s safety, including Bishop and other members of Congress. Brownback has said funding for NBAF is the Kansas delegation’s top priority.